The PPL License

The Private Pilots Licence (PPL) is the first licence all pilots will train for, this is a milestone in any pilots career. This licence is the core flight training for anything the pilot may wish to add on to their licence. With this licence you are free to fly around the skies and see so many different places. As this is an internationally recognized licence you can fly anywhere within the EASA member states, and some states such as USA will allow you to gain your FAA PPL with a bit of paperwork!

The EASA PPL has a minimum course length of 45 hours, this can be longer depending on the efforts and aptitude of the person undertaking the licence. The great thing about the licence is any hours flown under instruction count towards this licence, meaning if you are unable to fly for a period of time, all previous hours count you may just have to have a few hours recapping items.

There is no average length of time taken to complete the licence, however based on flying once a week, it would take you around 12 months to complete the licence. However this licence can be completed a lot quicker if you can commit the time to it

Breakdown of the Licence

As previously stated the minimum hour requirement is 45 hours, of these 45 hours at least:

25 hours of Dual Flight Instruction

10 hours of Supervised Solo Flight; including

5 Hours Solo Cross Country; with at least

1 Cross Country Flight of 150nm that includes 2 full landings at 2 different aerodromes

The remaining time to make the minimum 45 hours will either be refining skills learnt in a dual capacity or as supervised solo flight. This is useful when it comes to taking your skills test to be able to go over skills required for this.

On top of this there are 9 Theoretical Examinations, all of which are multiple choice and have a pass mark of 75% – more information on the PPL Exams Page

Once your flight training is completed and all 9 exams passed, you can go for your Skills Test, this test is done with an examiner who will assess your competency in flying the aircraft.

After all this is done you can apply for your PPL(A) licence from the CAA and the skies the limit!